A victory after a whopping 37 days. But the Samsung Lions’ Suarez wasn’t smiling.
Samsung won 9-7 against the Lotte Giants in Daegu on Tuesday, ending a three-game losing streak.메이저놀이터
Last year, Suarez was nicknamed “Sukrai” for his lack of luck after pitching well. It was either a lack of run support from the offense or a bullpen that would lie down.
But this year, he’s had his fair share of struggles. He had four quality starts (six innings or more and three or fewer earned runs) in five games in May, but he also had some bad outings, like the one against the KIA Tigers on May 17 (six runs in six innings).
On June 4, he gave up nine runs in 4⅔ innings against the Hanwha Eagles, his worst outing since joining the KBO.
Still, he didn’t go down in flames. Ace Buchanan was out, and Won Tae-in had collapsed the day before. He overcame the responsibility that weighed on his shoulders. On the day, Suarez threw a whopping 116 pitches and pitched 5⅔ innings of three-run ball, leading his team to victory.
A game between Lotte and Samsung at Samsung Lions Park in Daegu on October 10. Suarez is pitching. Daegu=Jae-geun Jung cjg@sportschosun.com/2023.6.10/
Oh “Captain” Jae-il reached the 200-homer milestone with back-to-back home runs, and Kim Hyun-jun’s wedge triple in the bottom of the seventh inning with a 6-3 lead was crucial. In the bottom of the ninth, Kim Tae-hoon and Oh Seung-hwan faltered and gave up four runs, but they held on for the win.
After the game, Suarez said, “It was a difficult game, but I’m happy that the team won in the end. The bullpen did a great job until the end. I want to thank them.”
“Today I pitched a lot of pitches that I didn’t think were good enough. I will prepare well for the next game so that I can show a good performance.”